WEBVTT 00:00:14.189 --> 00:00:20.969 Creeping over fields of green Remembering the 00:00:20.969 --> 00:00:27.269 faces The moments unseen The hands that built 00:00:27.269 --> 00:00:33.590 a dynasty The vision in their eyes Echoes in 00:00:33.590 --> 00:00:38.810 the auction bar Beneath an endless sky This is 00:00:38.810 --> 00:01:04.450 the bull buy Turn the bar Imagine, for a second, 00:01:04.590 --> 00:01:07.349 a bachelor farmer's 35 -year test of patience. 00:01:07.790 --> 00:01:09.969 Yeah, that's a long time to wait for a payoff. 00:01:10.150 --> 00:01:13.989 Right. And then picture a World War II boxer. 00:01:15.180 --> 00:01:18.420 A guy who literally fought Jack Dempsey, stepping 00:01:18.420 --> 00:01:21.019 out of the ring and bringing all that relentless 00:01:21.019 --> 00:01:23.439 grit straight into the milking parlor. Which 00:01:23.439 --> 00:01:26.379 is just a wild visual. It really is. Throw in 00:01:26.379 --> 00:01:28.480 a half million dollar bidding war that sounds 00:01:28.480 --> 00:01:32.319 way more like Wall Street in the 1980s than our 00:01:32.319 --> 00:01:34.980 rural livestock auction. Oh, the 80s investor 00:01:34.980 --> 00:01:37.920 craze. Total chaos. Pure chaos. And to top it 00:01:37.920 --> 00:01:40.420 all off, imagine a bankrupt investor's empty 00:01:40.420 --> 00:01:43.859 liquid nitrogen tank that... completely by accident, 00:01:43.920 --> 00:01:46.099 mind you, altered the genetic trajectory of an 00:01:46.099 --> 00:01:48.120 entire breed. It's crazy when you put it all 00:01:48.120 --> 00:01:49.819 together like that. So what do all these things 00:01:49.819 --> 00:01:51.760 have in common? Well, they are the messy, totally 00:01:51.760 --> 00:01:54.420 unlikely, and deeply human engines that actually 00:01:54.420 --> 00:01:57.459 built the modern dairy cow. Yeah. Welcome to 00:01:57.459 --> 00:01:59.620 the Deck Dive. Today we're exploring a seriously 00:01:59.620 --> 00:02:02.359 fascinating piece of agricultural history. It's 00:02:02.359 --> 00:02:04.420 based on this incredibly detailed article called 00:02:04.420 --> 00:02:07.239 Matriarchs of the Breed, Seven Cows That Built 00:02:07.239 --> 00:02:09.520 Holsteins. And our mission today is really to 00:02:09.520 --> 00:02:12.599 just unpack how, how... Just seven, literally 00:02:12.599 --> 00:02:16.919 seven franchise cows became the biological foundation 00:02:16.919 --> 00:02:20.159 that completely reshaped the global Holstein 00:02:20.159 --> 00:02:23.060 breed. Seven cows out of millions. Out of millions. 00:02:23.159 --> 00:02:25.699 We're going to look past the, you know, the multi 00:02:25.699 --> 00:02:28.120 -million dollar sire indexes and the heavily 00:02:28.120 --> 00:02:30.280 marketed bull studs. Right. The stuff that gets 00:02:30.280 --> 00:02:33.900 all the flashy magazine ads. Exactly. And we 00:02:33.900 --> 00:02:36.939 want to prove that the true secret to generational 00:02:36.939 --> 00:02:40.780 success in the dairy industry isn't... Well, 00:02:40.819 --> 00:02:42.580 it isn't always found on some mathematically 00:02:42.580 --> 00:02:45.039 perfected spreadsheet. No, the real power, the 00:02:45.039 --> 00:02:47.560 enduring legacy, it's hiding in the maternal 00:02:47.560 --> 00:02:49.960 line. It's all about the cow families. Absolutely. 00:02:50.240 --> 00:02:52.479 And if you are out there right now, like maybe 00:02:52.479 --> 00:02:54.099 you're listening to this in your truck, heading 00:02:54.099 --> 00:02:55.740 down a gravel road, or you're sitting in the 00:02:55.740 --> 00:02:58.280 cab of a tractor doing field work, or hell, maybe 00:02:58.280 --> 00:03:00.080 you're just gearing up for the afternoon milking. 00:03:00.240 --> 00:03:02.500 Yeah, right in the thick of it. This deep dive 00:03:02.500 --> 00:03:05.479 is going to fundamentally challenge how you view 00:03:05.479 --> 00:03:07.419 value. It's going to challenge how you think 00:03:07.419 --> 00:03:11.129 about long -term investments. It might make you 00:03:11.129 --> 00:03:13.490 look twice at the hidden potential sitting right 00:03:13.490 --> 00:03:15.250 in front of you in your own barn. Seriously? 00:03:15.610 --> 00:03:19.349 Because the story of these seven cows is a literal 00:03:19.349 --> 00:03:23.969 masterclass in strategy, luck, and just defying 00:03:23.969 --> 00:03:26.569 conventional wisdom. So much defying of conventional 00:03:26.569 --> 00:03:29.259 wisdom. Okay, let's unpack this. To understand 00:03:29.259 --> 00:03:32.539 how a single cow can build an empire, we have 00:03:32.539 --> 00:03:34.560 to start with the matriarch, who essentially 00:03:34.560 --> 00:03:38.159 set the gold standard for what a cow family could 00:03:38.159 --> 00:03:40.319 achieve. Right, the one that started it all. 00:03:40.460 --> 00:03:43.080 And really, the single photograph that introduced 00:03:43.080 --> 00:03:45.060 her to the world, we're talking about Glyneridge 00:03:45.060 --> 00:03:48.520 Citation Roxy. Ah, Roxy. The queen. The queen 00:03:48.520 --> 00:03:50.840 of the breed. But the environment that produced 00:03:50.840 --> 00:03:54.289 Roxy is... It's so vital to understanding her 00:03:54.289 --> 00:03:56.870 impact. Yeah, totally. Because it's 1968 and 00:03:56.870 --> 00:04:00.449 we are in Grenfell, Saskatchewan. Which, if you 00:04:00.449 --> 00:04:02.009 know anything about the geography of the North 00:04:02.009 --> 00:04:04.030 American Holstein power structure. It's nowhere 00:04:04.030 --> 00:04:06.009 near it. It is so remote. It's about as remote 00:04:06.009 --> 00:04:08.449 as you can possibly get. It's this quiet, isolated 00:04:08.449 --> 00:04:11.780 farm run by Lorne Leverage. Right. And his family 00:04:11.780 --> 00:04:14.479 had been farming there for generations. Like 00:04:14.479 --> 00:04:17.139 his grandfather milked Ayrshires. His dad switched 00:04:17.139 --> 00:04:20.120 to Holsteins back in the 20s. And Lorne takes 00:04:20.120 --> 00:04:23.300 over in 57. And he changes the farm prefix to 00:04:23.300 --> 00:04:25.839 Glenridge. Right. He just puts his head down 00:04:25.839 --> 00:04:28.579 and goes to work. And out of that isolation comes 00:04:28.579 --> 00:04:31.519 Roxy. Yeah, and her genetic background is such 00:04:31.519 --> 00:04:34.220 a fascinating study in stacked pedigrees. Break 00:04:34.220 --> 00:04:36.860 that down for us a bit. Sure. So her sire was 00:04:36.860 --> 00:04:40.759 Roseph Citation R, and her dam was a star -brewed 00:04:40.759 --> 00:04:44.279 cow, meaning her mother had already proven her 00:04:44.279 --> 00:04:47.199 ability to transmit really superior genetics 00:04:47.199 --> 00:04:50.139 to multiple offspring. Okay, so a solid foundation. 00:04:50.500 --> 00:04:53.230 Very solid. Roxy actually had two close crosses 00:04:53.230 --> 00:04:56.170 to a legendary bull named ABC Reflection Sovereign. 00:04:56.170 --> 00:04:58.490 Oh, wow. But the most interesting biological 00:04:58.490 --> 00:05:01.189 quirk, and this is super important later, was 00:05:01.189 --> 00:05:03.930 a hidden red factor in her genetics. OK, let's 00:05:03.930 --> 00:05:05.550 pause on that red factor for a second, because 00:05:05.550 --> 00:05:07.649 in a primarily black and white breed like the 00:05:07.649 --> 00:05:10.569 Holstein, recessive traits are a huge deal. They're 00:05:10.569 --> 00:05:12.870 massive. It's basic Mendelian genetics, sure, 00:05:13.009 --> 00:05:16.490 but it plays out over decades. Since the red 00:05:16.490 --> 00:05:19.329 coat color is recessive, a cow has to inherit 00:05:19.329 --> 00:05:22.069 the gene from both parents for it to physically 00:05:22.069 --> 00:05:24.709 show up, right? Exactly. So Roxy herself was 00:05:24.709 --> 00:05:26.850 black and white. But she was quietly carrying 00:05:26.850 --> 00:05:29.610 this red gene, just passing it down completely 00:05:29.610 --> 00:05:32.029 invisibly, generation after generation. Just 00:05:32.029 --> 00:05:34.310 waiting for the exact right mating to suddenly, 00:05:34.410 --> 00:05:36.790 like, explode into the population. Which is so 00:05:36.790 --> 00:05:40.930 cool. But that invisible potential aside, what 00:05:40.930 --> 00:05:43.370 wasn't invisible was her physical presence. No, 00:05:43.370 --> 00:05:45.709 she was a stunner. When the classifiers came 00:05:45.709 --> 00:05:47.689 to the farm. And these are the officials who 00:05:47.689 --> 00:05:50.170 evaluate a cow's physical conformation against 00:05:50.170 --> 00:05:52.410 the ideal standard. Right. They evaluate feet, 00:05:52.610 --> 00:05:55.990 legs, udder attachment, dairy capacity on a 1 00:05:55.990 --> 00:05:58.389 to 100 scale. And when they saw Roxy, they were 00:05:58.389 --> 00:06:00.689 just stunned. They were at 96 points initially, 00:06:00.829 --> 00:06:03.050 right? Yeah, 96. And later they elevated her 00:06:03.050 --> 00:06:05.490 to 97 points. I mean, to give that some context, 00:06:05.730 --> 00:06:09.370 achieving a 97 in the late 1960s was structurally 00:06:09.370 --> 00:06:11.889 so much harder than it is today. Oh, infinitely 00:06:11.889 --> 00:06:14.589 harder. They didn't have modern nutritional science 00:06:14.589 --> 00:06:17.569 or total mixed rations or the genomic predictability 00:06:17.569 --> 00:06:19.810 we rely on now. They were winging it compared 00:06:19.810 --> 00:06:22.930 to today. So to get a 97 -point cow back then 00:06:22.930 --> 00:06:25.350 meant you had bred an animal whose structural 00:06:25.350 --> 00:06:28.850 architecture was so biologically sound, so naturally 00:06:28.850 --> 00:06:31.250 flawless. That she could maintain perfect form 00:06:31.250 --> 00:06:33.889 while producing just massive amounts of milk. 00:06:34.110 --> 00:06:36.930 Right. And the classifiers who scored her, Andy 00:06:36.930 --> 00:06:39.439 Claussen and Avery Stafford, They had looked 00:06:39.439 --> 00:06:42.399 at roughly half a million cows between the two 00:06:42.399 --> 00:06:44.439 of them over their career. Half a million cows. 00:06:44.620 --> 00:06:47.180 Let that sink in. And they both stated she was 00:06:47.180 --> 00:06:49.860 the closest thing to physical perfection they 00:06:49.860 --> 00:06:53.139 had ever laid eyes on. Which leads to this massive, 00:06:53.160 --> 00:06:55.800 massive sliding doors moment for the industry. 00:06:56.019 --> 00:06:58.800 Oh man, this part is wild. Two titans of the 00:06:58.800 --> 00:07:01.800 dairy world, Doug Blair of Alta Genetics and 00:07:01.800 --> 00:07:05.310 Lowell Lindsay. a major sire procurement officer, 00:07:05.509 --> 00:07:08.209 travel all the way up to Saskatchewan. They make 00:07:08.209 --> 00:07:11.209 the trek. They make the trek. They see her. They 00:07:11.209 --> 00:07:13.029 recognize her absolute brilliance. They even 00:07:13.029 --> 00:07:15.110 discuss buying her together. And then? And then 00:07:15.110 --> 00:07:17.329 they walk away. Wait, what? They passed on her. 00:07:17.949 --> 00:07:20.370 Because Lauren Leverage's asking price was too 00:07:20.370 --> 00:07:23.149 high. Hold on. That makes zero financial sense 00:07:23.149 --> 00:07:25.209 to me. I know. It sounds crazy. If these guys 00:07:25.209 --> 00:07:27.670 have evaluated half a million cows and they finally 00:07:27.670 --> 00:07:30.730 find, quote unquote, the perfect one, how do 00:07:30.730 --> 00:07:33.129 they justify walking away over a few thousand 00:07:33.129 --> 00:07:35.149 dollars? That's hard to grasp now. Yeah. Were 00:07:35.149 --> 00:07:37.850 they just being cheap or were they seeing a risk 00:07:37.850 --> 00:07:40.509 we aren't factoring in today? Like if she's perfect, 00:07:40.629 --> 00:07:43.319 isn't any price worth it? It really comes down 00:07:43.319 --> 00:07:45.939 to the stark reality of risk assessment in a 00:07:45.939 --> 00:07:48.699 pre -technological era. Okay, unpack that. Yes, 00:07:48.759 --> 00:07:50.939 she was perfect, but she was just one living, 00:07:51.160 --> 00:07:55.379 breathing, fragile animal. In the late 1960s, 00:07:55.379 --> 00:07:57.720 the mechanisms for mass -producing a cow's genetics 00:07:57.720 --> 00:08:00.860 simply did not exist on a commercial scale. Oh, 00:08:00.939 --> 00:08:03.420 right. No mass cloning or anything? Exactly. 00:08:03.620 --> 00:08:05.980 If you pay an exorbitant, record -breaking price 00:08:05.980 --> 00:08:08.819 for one cow, and she twits her stomach or gets 00:08:08.819 --> 00:08:11.279 struck by lightning or simply fails to breed 00:08:11.279 --> 00:08:13.720 back... Your entire investment is gone. Total 00:08:13.720 --> 00:08:16.680 loss. Total loss. Blair and Lindsay were calculating 00:08:16.680 --> 00:08:19.660 biological risk. What they couldn't foresee was 00:08:19.660 --> 00:08:22.139 the massive technological leap that was about 00:08:22.139 --> 00:08:24.730 to hit the industry. Which brings us to Bob Miller. 00:08:24.970 --> 00:08:27.490 Yes, Bob Miller. And he's not a massive corporate 00:08:27.490 --> 00:08:30.290 syndicate. He's a part -time livestock photographer 00:08:30.290 --> 00:08:33.090 from Illinois looking for a cow family with type, 00:08:33.149 --> 00:08:35.590 production, and longevity. And he gets hired 00:08:35.590 --> 00:08:39.090 to photograph Roxy in 1973. He looks through 00:08:39.090 --> 00:08:41.549 the lens, sees exactly what Blair and Lindsay 00:08:41.549 --> 00:08:43.690 saw, but he makes a totally different calculation. 00:08:43.970 --> 00:08:46.330 He goes all in. Within a year, he buys her and 00:08:46.330 --> 00:08:48.529 moves her down to Dundee, Illinois. And here 00:08:48.529 --> 00:08:51.500 is where Miller makes a historic... frankly terrifying 00:08:51.500 --> 00:08:55.240 gamble. He puts Roxy on an embryo transfer, or 00:08:55.240 --> 00:08:58.620 ET, program. Now today, ET is standard practice, 00:08:58.740 --> 00:09:01.289 right? You administer hormones to a donor cow 00:09:01.289 --> 00:09:04.070 so she super ovulates. You breed her and then 00:09:04.070 --> 00:09:06.750 you non -surgically flush the fertilized embryos 00:09:06.750 --> 00:09:09.629 out of her uterus to implant into surrogate heifers. 00:09:09.669 --> 00:09:13.070 Standard stuff today. But in the early 1970s. 00:09:13.090 --> 00:09:15.289 Wild West. Absolute Wild West. It was incredibly 00:09:15.289 --> 00:09:17.610 expensive, highly unpredictable. And in many 00:09:17.610 --> 00:09:20.009 early cases, it required invasive surgery to 00:09:20.009 --> 00:09:22.370 retrieve the embryos. So you were taking a profound 00:09:22.370 --> 00:09:24.830 risk with your most valuable animal. You were 00:09:24.830 --> 00:09:27.210 literally betting the farm on unproven science. 00:09:27.740 --> 00:09:30.039 It's a staggering financial and biological risk. 00:09:30.240 --> 00:09:33.179 But for Miller, the gamble pays off in a way 00:09:33.179 --> 00:09:36.299 that reshapes the breed. Because of ET, Roxy 00:09:36.299 --> 00:09:38.899 doesn't just produce the typical, what, five 00:09:38.899 --> 00:09:41.419 or six calves a cow might have in her lifetime. 00:09:41.700 --> 00:09:44.860 Right. She produces 30 offspring. 30. And she 00:09:44.860 --> 00:09:46.820 becomes the very first cow in the world to have 00:09:46.820 --> 00:09:50.120 10 daughters classify excellent. And she eventually 00:09:50.120 --> 00:09:53.460 hits 16 excellent daughters. The geometric progression 00:09:53.460 --> 00:09:55.820 of her genetics is staggering from there. Yeah, 00:09:55.860 --> 00:09:58.230 run those numbers for us. So those 16 daughters 00:09:58.230 --> 00:10:01.950 produced 34 excellent daughters. Those 34 produced 00:10:01.950 --> 00:10:07.509 52. By 2004, there were 50 direct maternal lines 00:10:07.509 --> 00:10:09.990 of four or more generations of excellence descending 00:10:09.990 --> 00:10:12.190 from her. It's like finding an unknown garage 00:10:12.190 --> 00:10:14.889 band in Saskatchewan, bringing them to Chicago, 00:10:14.970 --> 00:10:17.110 and watching them produce 50 platinum albums. 00:10:17.289 --> 00:10:18.990 That's a great way to look at it. They literally 00:10:18.990 --> 00:10:20.710 just kept writing checks your herd could cash. 00:10:20.950 --> 00:10:23.129 But what makes a Roxy story so compelling isn't 00:10:23.129 --> 00:10:25.470 just the biology, right? It's how her genetics 00:10:25.470 --> 00:10:27.950 behaved in the messy reality of the marketplace. 00:10:28.330 --> 00:10:30.570 Oh, absolutely. Take her daughter, Mill Armore 00:10:30.570 --> 00:10:33.409 Roxette. Yeah, let's talk about Roxette. In 1977, 00:10:33.970 --> 00:10:37.759 Bob Miller consigns her to a sale in Ohio. She 00:10:37.759 --> 00:10:41.279 sells for $25 ,000 to Peter Heffering of Hanover 00:10:41.279 --> 00:10:44.009 Hill Farms. Which was a... good chunk of change. 00:10:44.309 --> 00:10:46.669 But Miller almost backed out of the deal entirely. 00:10:47.049 --> 00:10:49.289 He didn't realize it was structured on investor 00:10:49.289 --> 00:10:51.509 terms. Wait, what does that mean, investor terms? 00:10:51.710 --> 00:10:54.070 He was getting a third of the cash down and the 00:10:54.070 --> 00:10:56.850 rest paid out over two years. He probably thought 00:10:56.850 --> 00:10:58.789 he was getting swindled by a slick financing 00:10:58.789 --> 00:11:01.509 trick. He absolutely did. He hated the terms. 00:11:01.590 --> 00:11:05.669 But that misunderstood, messy $25 ,000 deal ended 00:11:05.669 --> 00:11:07.830 up being a foundational moment for Hanover Hill. 00:11:07.929 --> 00:11:10.470 Because Roxette goes to their farm, lives into 00:11:10.470 --> 00:11:13.590 her late teens, produces over 100 pregnancies 00:11:13.590 --> 00:11:16.750 through ET, leaves 13 excellent daughters, and 00:11:16.750 --> 00:11:19.470 single -handedly adds over $2 million to Hanover 00:11:19.470 --> 00:11:22.009 Hill's coffers. She became a genetic fountainhead. 00:11:22.190 --> 00:11:25.190 $2 million from one heifer. And her descendants 00:11:25.190 --> 00:11:27.389 didn't just look pretty in a show ring. They 00:11:27.389 --> 00:11:30.090 went to Germany. They topped indexes for somatic 00:11:30.090 --> 00:11:32.570 cell count, fertility, and longevity. They were 00:11:32.570 --> 00:11:34.929 just robust. There's a quote from Mary Briggs 00:11:34.929 --> 00:11:37.210 in the source material that perfectly captures 00:11:37.210 --> 00:11:40.269 the Roxy ethos. She says, They just go along 00:11:40.269 --> 00:11:43.190 doing their business. No drama. No drama at all. 00:11:43.470 --> 00:11:46.750 Wide rear ends, sound feet, and they milk like 00:11:46.750 --> 00:11:49.649 freight trains. When Roxy finally died in 1984 00:11:49.649 --> 00:11:52.470 at 16 years old, she had a lifetime production 00:11:52.470 --> 00:11:56.610 of nearly 210 ,000 pounds of milk. She proved 00:11:56.610 --> 00:11:59.289 that a cow could be stunningly beautiful and 00:11:59.289 --> 00:12:01.330 still be the hardest worker in the barn. Now, 00:12:01.330 --> 00:12:04.289 the transition from Roxy to our next matriarch 00:12:04.289 --> 00:12:09.269 is a literal masterclass in contrast. Yeah. Completely 00:12:09.269 --> 00:12:11.649 different worlds. Roxy's story was driven by 00:12:11.649 --> 00:12:13.610 international buyers, professional photography, 00:12:13.809 --> 00:12:16.029 and the rapid acceleration of embryo transfer 00:12:16.029 --> 00:12:18.929 technology. Very high -tech, fast -paced. But 00:12:18.929 --> 00:12:21.129 world -class genetics can also be forged through 00:12:21.129 --> 00:12:23.529 the exact opposite approach. We are moving from 00:12:23.529 --> 00:12:25.929 the high -tech world of E .T. to a quiet kitchen 00:12:25.929 --> 00:12:28.269 table in Wisconsin. Where greatness was built 00:12:28.269 --> 00:12:30.929 through decades of solitary, stubborn patience. 00:12:31.289 --> 00:12:34.690 We are talking about Bob Snow and Snow N. Denise's 00:12:34.690 --> 00:12:36.909 Delia. Let me paint this picture for you because 00:12:36.909 --> 00:12:39.000 it is the quintessential... farmer story. Bob 00:12:39.000 --> 00:12:41.980 Snow is a bachelor farmer. His neighbors describe 00:12:41.980 --> 00:12:46.539 him as nobody's fool. A sober, prudent, incredibly 00:12:46.539 --> 00:12:49.340 thoughtful man. Okay. It's the last week of July, 00:12:49.559 --> 00:12:52.259 1970. He's sitting in his kitchen while his mother 00:12:52.259 --> 00:12:54.279 makes lunch, and he's thumbing through the dairy 00:12:54.279 --> 00:12:57.740 magazines. He spots an ad for a dispersal sale, 00:12:57.899 --> 00:13:01.500 the Adolph Boerge sale, about 125 miles away. 00:13:01.700 --> 00:13:04.299 And Snow doesn't like to waste gas or time, right? 00:13:04.360 --> 00:13:06.840 No. So he makes a strict rule for himself before 00:13:06.840 --> 00:13:09.360 he even picks up his keys. He says, I am not 00:13:09.360 --> 00:13:11.440 interested in the middle or the bottom. If I 00:13:11.440 --> 00:13:14.799 go, I only buy off the top. And he executes that 00:13:14.799 --> 00:13:17.120 plan flawlessly. He buys three head that day. 00:13:17.709 --> 00:13:20.389 But the true genius of Bob Snow wasn't the initial 00:13:20.389 --> 00:13:22.789 purchase. No, it was the 35 -year architectural 00:13:22.789 --> 00:13:25.809 project he embarked on afterward. 35 years. Most 00:13:25.809 --> 00:13:28.389 people can't stick to a diet for 35 days. Right. 00:13:28.509 --> 00:13:31.029 But Snow utilized an alternating sire philosophy, 00:13:31.470 --> 00:13:34.210 and this is a crucial biological concept. Let's 00:13:34.210 --> 00:13:36.070 get into the weeds on that. Okay, so if he had 00:13:36.070 --> 00:13:38.029 a cow that was a bit frail but produced massive 00:13:38.029 --> 00:13:41.210 amounts of milk, a very dairy cow, he bred her 00:13:41.210 --> 00:13:44.860 to a strength sire. And strength sires were bulls 00:13:44.860 --> 00:13:47.460 known for transmitting big bones, wide chest, 00:13:47.580 --> 00:13:50.440 deep barrels, right? Exactly. Because if you 00:13:50.440 --> 00:13:52.679 just keep breeding dairy to dairy, the animal 00:13:52.679 --> 00:13:55.799 eventually becomes too frail to support her own 00:13:55.799 --> 00:13:58.279 udder. The structural integrity breaks down under 00:13:58.279 --> 00:14:00.879 the metabolic stress of milk production. Precisely. 00:14:00.980 --> 00:14:03.200 And conversely, if you breed strength to strength 00:14:03.200 --> 00:14:06.019 for too long, you get a coarse, heavy cow that 00:14:06.019 --> 00:14:08.220 doesn't produce enough milk to pay your feed 00:14:08.220 --> 00:14:11.200 bill. So snow alternated. Strength, then dairy. 00:14:11.629 --> 00:14:13.730 Strength than dairy. He never chased the hot 00:14:13.730 --> 00:14:15.970 index bull of the year. He bred for absolute 00:14:15.970 --> 00:14:18.529 functional balance. And this meticulous, slow 00:14:18.529 --> 00:14:22.049 -burn, 35 -year plan culminates when he breeds 00:14:22.049 --> 00:14:24.950 a powerfully strong cow named Denise to a refined 00:14:24.950 --> 00:14:27.669 high milk bull named Walkway Chief Mark. And 00:14:27.669 --> 00:14:30.789 the result, born in 1986, is a black heifer calf 00:14:30.789 --> 00:14:33.929 named Snow Nen, Denise's Delia. And Delia becomes 00:14:33.929 --> 00:14:36.350 the centerpiece of one of the most tense cinematic 00:14:36.350 --> 00:14:39.009 showdowns in the history of the show ring. It 00:14:39.009 --> 00:14:41.210 really is like a movie scene. It's the Wisconsin 00:14:41.210 --> 00:14:44.730 Championship Show. Frank Reagan, a breeder from 00:14:44.730 --> 00:14:47.529 Reagan Crest Farms out in Iowa, is only standing 00:14:47.529 --> 00:14:49.330 by the ring because it rained that morning and 00:14:49.330 --> 00:14:51.710 he couldn't chop his hay. Talk about luck. He 00:14:51.710 --> 00:14:54.669 sees this black two -year -old cow step into 00:14:54.669 --> 00:14:57.549 the arena and he just stops dead. He sees what 00:14:57.549 --> 00:15:00.289 35 years of Bob Snow's patience actually looks 00:15:00.289 --> 00:15:02.389 like in the flesh. And Reagan becomes obsessed. 00:15:02.610 --> 00:15:04.909 Completely. He follows Snow back to the barn, 00:15:04.990 --> 00:15:08.000 asks for a price. and is basically told she isn't 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:10.519 for sale, or rather, the price is astronomical. 00:15:10.960 --> 00:15:13.820 But Reagan can't let it go. He drives up to Snow's 00:15:13.820 --> 00:15:16.759 farm over and over. A bidding war essentially 00:15:16.759 --> 00:15:19.019 starts between the two of them. Which is so funny. 00:15:19.059 --> 00:15:21.440 One guy bidding against himself, basically. Pretty 00:15:21.440 --> 00:15:24.700 much. Snow sets the price at $10 ,000, and every 00:15:24.700 --> 00:15:27.419 few visits, as Reagan showed more interest, Snow 00:15:27.419 --> 00:15:30.379 quietly bumps it up by $5 ,000. That is ruthless. 00:15:30.980 --> 00:15:32.679 Right. Before long, the price tag is north of 00:15:32.679 --> 00:15:35.879 $50 ,000. $50 ,000 for a cow in the early 90s. 00:15:35.950 --> 00:15:38.230 Yeah, huge money. And they finally strike a deal 00:15:38.230 --> 00:15:41.049 right before the 1991 Wisconsin Spring Show. 00:15:41.590 --> 00:15:44.450 Regan buys her, but Snow retains ownership until 00:15:44.450 --> 00:15:47.110 the show is over. Now, put yourself in Regan's 00:15:47.110 --> 00:15:49.490 boots for a second. You just dropped over $50 00:15:49.490 --> 00:15:52.669 ,000 on a single animal. The pressure has to 00:15:52.669 --> 00:15:55.070 be immense. And then the night before the show, 00:15:55.210 --> 00:15:59.529 disaster strikes. Delia looks empty. Oh, no. 00:16:00.110 --> 00:16:02.409 This is a nightmare scenario for a showman. Total 00:16:02.409 --> 00:16:05.149 nightmare. She has a flawless udder, but her 00:16:05.149 --> 00:16:08.009 body is shallow. She lacks the deep, sweeting 00:16:08.009 --> 00:16:10.809 rib that judges look for to indicate dairy capacity. 00:16:11.269 --> 00:16:13.850 She looks like a greyhound, not a champion dairy 00:16:13.850 --> 00:16:16.590 cow. Regan goes into full panic mode. I would 00:16:16.590 --> 00:16:19.610 too. He starts buying grassy hay, alfalfa, a 00:16:19.610 --> 00:16:22.190 bag of calf feed. He is desperately mixing grain, 00:16:22.330 --> 00:16:24.110 trying to get her to fill out. And Snow comes 00:16:24.110 --> 00:16:26.750 over. Remember, Snow is calm as can be and tells 00:16:26.750 --> 00:16:29.289 him she likes warm water with her beet pulp. 00:16:29.480 --> 00:16:31.799 Now, the mechanics of feeding beet pulp are fascinating. 00:16:31.799 --> 00:16:34.179 Yeah, explain how that works. Dried beet pulp 00:16:34.179 --> 00:16:37.159 acts like a sponge. When a cow eats it and drinks 00:16:37.159 --> 00:16:39.799 warm water, the pulp expands massively inside 00:16:39.799 --> 00:16:42.539 the rumen. It physically stretches the cow's 00:16:42.539 --> 00:16:45.179 digestive tract, dropping her ribs down and pushing 00:16:45.179 --> 00:16:47.980 her barrel out. Creating that massive depth of 00:16:47.980 --> 00:16:51.240 body. Exactly. But you can literally feel the 00:16:51.240 --> 00:16:54.279 tension in that barn. It's late at night, the 00:16:54.279 --> 00:16:56.659 lights are buzzing, and Reagan is hand -feeding 00:16:56.659 --> 00:17:00.679 this $50 ,000 investment. Praying, the biology 00:17:00.679 --> 00:17:03.259 responds by morning. And by 10 o 'clock the next 00:17:03.259 --> 00:17:05.480 morning, the hay and the beet pulp have done 00:17:05.480 --> 00:17:09.099 their job. Her ribs expand. She fills her barrel. 00:17:09.299 --> 00:17:11.799 A crowd actually starts gathering just to stare 00:17:11.799 --> 00:17:13.779 at her. She walks out and wins grand champion. 00:17:14.039 --> 00:17:16.400 And Bob Snow, the quiet bachelor farmer, has 00:17:16.400 --> 00:17:18.720 to back his car into the arena just to load up 00:17:18.720 --> 00:17:20.859 all the trophies. And people were actually disgruntled. 00:17:20.960 --> 00:17:23.259 Oh, they are mad. The establishment breeders 00:17:23.259 --> 00:17:25.940 were annoyed that a nobody bachelor farmer just 00:17:25.940 --> 00:17:28.769 walked in and cleaned house. But the trophies 00:17:28.769 --> 00:17:30.630 are kind of irrelevant compared to the ripple 00:17:30.630 --> 00:17:33.470 effect Delia had on the industry. What Regencrest 00:17:33.470 --> 00:17:36.210 built with Delia's genetics is staggering. She 00:17:36.210 --> 00:17:39.670 produced 76 registered daughters. Wow. 44 of 00:17:39.670 --> 00:17:41.869 her sons were sampled by artificial insemination 00:17:41.869 --> 00:17:45.470 companies. Three of those sons, Durham, Dundee, 00:17:45.490 --> 00:17:48.069 and Derry, became gold medal sires that flooded 00:17:48.069 --> 00:17:51.329 the global market. Durham alone shifted the entire 00:17:51.329 --> 00:17:54.410 landscape of the breed. You cannot walk onto 00:17:54.410 --> 00:17:56.869 a modern dairy farm today without finding duum 00:17:56.869 --> 00:17:59.289 genetics in the pedigree. But what did those 00:17:59.289 --> 00:18:01.690 genetics actually do for the farmer in the tractor? 00:18:01.930 --> 00:18:04.450 Right, the practical application. Scott Culbertson 00:18:04.450 --> 00:18:06.869 from Select Sires noted that Delia's family produced 00:18:06.869 --> 00:18:10.250 trouble -free, everyday cows. They didn't cause 00:18:10.250 --> 00:18:12.690 drama. They had great udders, they bred back 00:18:12.690 --> 00:18:14.930 easily, and they just blended into the herd and 00:18:14.930 --> 00:18:18.400 worked. Culbertson argued... that Delia's impact 00:18:18.400 --> 00:18:21.819 sent more actual profit back into everyday farmers' 00:18:22.000 --> 00:18:24.960 pockets across the world than any other cow in 00:18:24.960 --> 00:18:27.920 history. And Delia herself embodied that rugged 00:18:27.920 --> 00:18:30.200 resilience, right? Oh my goodness, yes. Two months 00:18:30.200 --> 00:18:32.380 after Reagan took her home to Iowa, she started 00:18:32.380 --> 00:18:34.680 kicking at her belly. She was in severe distress. 00:18:35.019 --> 00:18:37.579 Okay. The veterinarian opened her up and pulled 00:18:37.579 --> 00:18:40.200 three gallons of sand out of her stomach. Three 00:18:40.200 --> 00:18:42.539 gallons? How does a cow even eat three gallons 00:18:42.539 --> 00:18:45.680 of sand? Well, because Bob Snow's farm in Wisconsin 00:18:45.680 --> 00:18:48.960 was sandy. And she had spent her early life drinking 00:18:48.960 --> 00:18:51.160 from a creek where she'd stir up the sand and 00:18:51.160 --> 00:18:54.960 ingest it over years. That is insane. The biological 00:18:54.960 --> 00:18:57.579 fortitude required to survive massive abdominal 00:18:57.579 --> 00:19:00.759 surgery to remove 70 pounds of wet sand from 00:19:00.759 --> 00:19:03.500 your digestive tract. Bounce right back and live 00:19:03.500 --> 00:19:05.980 to be almost 15 years old. It's unbelievable. 00:19:06.579 --> 00:19:09.660 Delia proves that patience, ignoring the fads, 00:19:09.740 --> 00:19:12.700 and focusing on breeding trouble -free, structurally 00:19:12.700 --> 00:19:16.099 sound working cows builds generational wealth. 00:19:16.559 --> 00:19:18.680 Bob Snow wasn't breeding for a magazine cover. 00:19:18.819 --> 00:19:21.319 He built a biological machine that could survive 00:19:21.319 --> 00:19:24.660 surgery and still produce 180 ,000 pounds of 00:19:24.660 --> 00:19:28.059 milk. But if Bob Snow's methodical 35 -year plan 00:19:28.059 --> 00:19:30.680 is one end of the spectrum, the environment that 00:19:30.680 --> 00:19:33.380 birthed our next matriarch was the exact opposite. 00:19:33.579 --> 00:19:35.420 Night and day difference. We are stepping out 00:19:35.420 --> 00:19:38.140 of the quiet Wisconsin kitchen and into an era 00:19:38.140 --> 00:19:41.220 of pure financial chaos, absolute madness and 00:19:41.220 --> 00:19:43.970 a stroke of pure dumb luck. We have to talk about 00:19:43.970 --> 00:19:47.230 the 1980s investor era and Stuckey Elm Park Black 00:19:47.230 --> 00:19:49.349 Rose. Let's set the scene. To understand Black 00:19:49.349 --> 00:19:51.250 Rose, you really must understand the economic 00:19:51.250 --> 00:19:54.329 landscape of 1980s agriculture. You had outside 00:19:54.329 --> 00:19:57.069 capital pouring into registered Holsteins, primarily 00:19:57.069 --> 00:19:59.210 as tax shelters for wealthy investors who didn't 00:19:59.210 --> 00:20:01.390 know the first thing about farming. Syndicates 00:20:01.390 --> 00:20:03.670 were forming everywhere. Prices were inflating 00:20:03.670 --> 00:20:06.529 to absurd bubble -level extremes. And right in 00:20:06.529 --> 00:20:08.490 the middle of this frenzy is a man named Jack 00:20:08.490 --> 00:20:16.819 Stuckey. $275 ,000 on those notorious investor 00:20:16.819 --> 00:20:19.440 terms. A fraction down. The rest promise later. 00:20:19.680 --> 00:20:22.119 And Stuckey just goes on an absolute rampage, 00:20:22.119 --> 00:20:24.259 right? He's buying the top cows at every sale, 00:20:24.380 --> 00:20:26.700 taking home premier exhibitor banners, living 00:20:26.700 --> 00:20:28.880 like a king. But the source material details 00:20:28.880 --> 00:20:31.339 this incredible, terrifying, behind -the -scenes 00:20:31.339 --> 00:20:34.019 chaos. There were rumors of the mafia getting 00:20:34.019 --> 00:20:36.119 involved when the money dried up. The mafia. 00:20:36.460 --> 00:20:39.440 Yeah. There's stories about angry investors literally... 00:20:39.789 --> 00:20:42.569 dynamiting the porch off Stuckey's house. Dynamiting 00:20:42.569 --> 00:20:44.930 a porch over cows? That is wild. The reality 00:20:44.930 --> 00:20:47.390 of the collapse was a classic devastating financial 00:20:47.390 --> 00:20:50.230 implosion. Stuckey's office floor was literally 00:20:50.230 --> 00:20:52.509 covered in two feet of unpaid bills. Two feet. 00:20:52.670 --> 00:20:55.829 He was charging syndicates $750 ,000 for cows 00:20:55.829 --> 00:20:58.470 he had purchased for a third of that price. When 00:20:58.470 --> 00:21:00.450 the tax laws shifted and the returns vanished, 00:21:00.670 --> 00:21:02.930 the investors stopped paying him. which meant 00:21:02.930 --> 00:21:05.309 he couldn't pay the original breeders. It ended 00:21:05.309 --> 00:21:08.509 in a massive, ugly bankruptcy. The cattle were 00:21:08.509 --> 00:21:11.109 seized and locked down by a bankruptcy trustee. 00:21:11.190 --> 00:21:14.190 And enter Louis Prange. Right. Prange had actually 00:21:14.190 --> 00:21:16.930 owned Speckle years before and sold her. Now 00:21:16.930 --> 00:21:19.309 he's got a client in Brazil who desperately wants 00:21:19.309 --> 00:21:22.349 high -end embryos. Prange knows Stuckey's elite 00:21:22.349 --> 00:21:25.470 herd is sitting in legal limbo, eating feed but 00:21:25.470 --> 00:21:28.170 generating no revenue. So he drives to Indiana, 00:21:28.450 --> 00:21:30.670 negotiates a lease for a dozen of these bankrupt 00:21:30.670 --> 00:21:33.490 cows directly from the trustee, and starts an 00:21:33.490 --> 00:21:36.230 embryo flushing program. Prange strikes a very 00:21:36.230 --> 00:21:39.470 pragmatic deal. He pays the expenses, keeps the 00:21:39.470 --> 00:21:42.069 male calves, and splits the proceeds of the females 00:21:42.069 --> 00:21:44.450 with the bank and Stuckey. But Stuckey, even 00:21:44.450 --> 00:21:46.710 in the middle of total financial ruin, insists 00:21:46.710 --> 00:21:49.509 on one condition. Yep, the calves have to carry 00:21:49.509 --> 00:21:52.289 his farm prefix. He's bankrupt, but his pride 00:21:52.289 --> 00:21:54.829 demands the Stuckey name remains on the pedigree. 00:21:54.990 --> 00:21:57.230 And here is where biology and luck... completely 00:21:57.230 --> 00:22:00.390 collide. Prange wants to breed Speckle to a heavily 00:22:00.390 --> 00:22:03.650 demanded bull named Blackstar. But Stooky, exercising 00:22:03.650 --> 00:22:05.930 his last bit of control, absolutely refuses. 00:22:06.329 --> 00:22:08.769 He demands they use his preferred bull, Roseaf 00:22:08.769 --> 00:22:12.390 Citation R. They argue bitterly over this. Finally, 00:22:12.569 --> 00:22:15.250 Prange throws his hands up and says, fine, send 00:22:15.250 --> 00:22:17.730 me the Citation R semen. You have to picture 00:22:17.730 --> 00:22:19.390 the phone call that happens a few days later. 00:22:19.509 --> 00:22:22.470 The phone rings. It's Stooky. And he has to admit, 00:22:22.650 --> 00:22:25.670 I can't send you the semen, Louie. My semen tank 00:22:25.670 --> 00:22:27.730 ran dry. Let's explain the mechanics of that 00:22:27.730 --> 00:22:30.109 real quick. Bull semen is stored in specialized 00:22:30.109 --> 00:22:32.950 tanks filled with liquid nitrogen, keeping it 00:22:32.950 --> 00:22:35.750 at negative 320 degrees Fahrenheit. If you don't 00:22:35.750 --> 00:22:38.329 continually top off the nitrogen, it slowly evaporates. 00:22:38.369 --> 00:22:40.390 Once the tank goes dry, the temperature rises 00:22:40.390 --> 00:22:43.450 and the semen dies. It is completely useless. 00:22:43.730 --> 00:22:45.670 So because of a neglected maintenance chore, 00:22:45.849 --> 00:22:48.529 because Jack Stuckey forgot to refill his nitrogen 00:22:48.529 --> 00:22:51.410 tank amidst the chaos of his bankruptcy, Pranz 00:22:51.410 --> 00:22:54.009 goes ahead and uses Blackstar anyway. And the 00:22:54.009 --> 00:22:56.880 result of that mating? is Stuckey Elm Park Black 00:22:56.880 --> 00:22:59.599 Rose. If that tank had been full, the entire 00:22:59.599 --> 00:23:01.539 trajectory of the Holstein breed would have been 00:23:01.539 --> 00:23:03.779 completely different. Black Rose emerges quite 00:23:03.779 --> 00:23:07.000 literally from the wreckage. In 1991, she is 00:23:07.000 --> 00:23:09.680 sold as an 18 -month -old heifer for a mere $5 00:23:09.680 --> 00:23:13.420 ,400 to a trio of buyers, Mark Rueth, Mark Van 00:23:13.420 --> 00:23:16.059 Mersbergen, and the Schaaf family. And what happens 00:23:16.059 --> 00:23:19.019 next is just extraordinary. She develops into 00:23:19.019 --> 00:23:21.920 an absolute powerhouse, becoming All -American 00:23:21.920 --> 00:23:23.819 as a two -year -old, a three -year -old, and 00:23:23.819 --> 00:23:26.039 Reserve All -American as a five -year -old and 00:23:26.039 --> 00:23:28.759 an aged cow. But she wasn't just an empty showpiece. 00:23:29.079 --> 00:23:32.259 She produced two lactations over 40 ,000 pounds 00:23:32.259 --> 00:23:35.619 of milk. Which is huge! Yet she was largely ignored 00:23:35.619 --> 00:23:38.200 by the pure index breeders, the guys running 00:23:38.200 --> 00:23:40.299 the mathematical formulas, because her numbers 00:23:40.299 --> 00:23:42.519 didn't fit their narrow criteria. But her physical 00:23:42.519 --> 00:23:45.000 credentials were undeniable. She became the number 00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:48.200 one type cow in the entire breed. By 2004, she 00:23:48.200 --> 00:23:51.180 had produced 30 excellent sons and daughters. 00:23:51.539 --> 00:23:54.619 Her sons' bulls like Kite, Red Marker, and Big 00:23:54.619 --> 00:23:57.039 Sky were utilized heavily because they brought 00:23:57.039 --> 00:23:59.400 a massive infusion of physical substance, width, 00:23:59.579 --> 00:24:01.839 and strength back into a breed that was becoming 00:24:01.839 --> 00:24:04.380 dangerously frail. And remember Roxy's hidden 00:24:04.380 --> 00:24:06.480 red factor we talked about? Right, Black Rose 00:24:06.480 --> 00:24:08.680 carried red genetics too, which exploded generations 00:24:08.680 --> 00:24:11.259 later with descendants like Lavender Ruby Red 00:24:11.259 --> 00:24:13.539 Rose Red. Who became the supreme champion at 00:24:13.539 --> 00:24:15.740 World Dairy Expo. There is such a deep poetic 00:24:15.740 --> 00:24:18.640 irony to the Black Rose story. Jack Stuckey loses 00:24:18.640 --> 00:24:20.940 everything. The source mentions he eventually 00:24:20.940 --> 00:24:23.359 leaves the cattle business entirely, goes to 00:24:23.359 --> 00:24:25.799 work as a hospital administrator, and dies a 00:24:25.799 --> 00:24:28.779 minister in 2007. He never made it back to the 00:24:28.779 --> 00:24:32.069 show ring. But his name? That demanded Stuckey 00:24:32.069 --> 00:24:35.390 prefix lives on in elite pedigrees all over the 00:24:35.390 --> 00:24:37.670 globe, attached to some of the greatest cows 00:24:37.670 --> 00:24:39.730 to ever walk the earth. All because of an empty 00:24:39.730 --> 00:24:42.609 tank. It is a stark reminder that while the industry 00:24:42.609 --> 00:24:45.230 tries to engineer perfection in a sterile lab, 00:24:45.450 --> 00:24:48.650 sometimes the greatest biological assets are 00:24:48.650 --> 00:24:51.710 born from absolute, unpredictable chaos. Chaos 00:24:51.710 --> 00:24:54.369 and luck. So we've looked at the perfectly planned 00:24:54.369 --> 00:24:57.450 35 -year masterpiece with Delia, and we've looked 00:24:57.450 --> 00:24:59.470 at the happy accident born of bankruptcy with 00:24:59.470 --> 00:25:02.049 Black Rose. Both dominated the show ring with 00:25:02.049 --> 00:25:04.250 flawless aesthetics. The next two matriarchs 00:25:04.250 --> 00:25:06.390 we need to dive into prove that true foundational 00:25:06.390 --> 00:25:08.829 greatness doesn't always wear a grand champion 00:25:08.829 --> 00:25:11.470 ribbon. Sometimes greatness is just plain ugly. 00:25:11.730 --> 00:25:14.029 Sometimes it just puts its head down and grinds 00:25:14.029 --> 00:25:16.349 it out in the milking parlor. This brings us 00:25:16.349 --> 00:25:19.150 to Plushonsky, Chief Faith, and Ricecrest, Southwind 00:25:19.150 --> 00:25:21.829 Kay. Let's start with Faith and the man who bred 00:25:21.829 --> 00:25:25.160 her. Charlie Plushansky. Because the environment 00:25:25.160 --> 00:25:28.279 shapes the cow. And Charlie Plushansky's environment 00:25:28.279 --> 00:25:31.019 was forged in combat. Charlie is a character 00:25:31.019 --> 00:25:33.339 right out of a novel. He's a World War II Marine. 00:25:33.559 --> 00:25:35.920 He's a competitive boxer. The article specifically 00:25:35.920 --> 00:25:38.180 highlights a story where he was fighting in a 00:25:38.180 --> 00:25:40.680 ring and the match had to be stopped by none 00:25:40.680 --> 00:25:44.059 other than boxing legend Jack Dempsey. Jack Dempsey? 00:25:44.059 --> 00:25:45.920 Jack Dempsey literally had to put the gloves 00:25:45.920 --> 00:25:48.710 on himself to knock out the winner. When you 00:25:48.710 --> 00:25:50.529 go through experiences like the Marine Corps 00:25:50.529 --> 00:25:53.369 and fighting in front of Jack Dempsey, you don't 00:25:53.369 --> 00:25:55.849 return to a dairy farm in Pennsylvania with a 00:25:55.849 --> 00:25:58.890 fragile worldview. No, you don't. Charlie brought 00:25:58.890 --> 00:26:01.829 his boxer's grit right into the breeding program. 00:26:02.150 --> 00:26:04.809 His philosophy was entirely contrarian to the 00:26:04.809 --> 00:26:07.769 elite show ring culture, wasn't it? Completely. 00:26:08.109 --> 00:26:10.589 Plushansky didn't care about pretty cows. He 00:26:10.589 --> 00:26:14.339 had zero interest in flash or aesthetics. He 00:26:14.339 --> 00:26:17.099 selected heavy -duty, ugly, massive production 00:26:17.099 --> 00:26:19.480 bowls. He understood the mechanical requirements 00:26:19.480 --> 00:26:22.420 of extreme milk production. He wanted incredibly 00:26:22.420 --> 00:26:25.259 deep barrels to process massive amounts of feed. 00:26:25.440 --> 00:26:28.619 He wanted thick, functional legs that could physically 00:26:28.619 --> 00:26:31.400 hold up under the immense weight of a heavily 00:26:31.400 --> 00:26:33.799 engorged udder. He was breeding for fighters. 00:26:34.140 --> 00:26:37.519 Exactly. So when Charlie bred Plushansky Chief 00:26:37.519 --> 00:26:41.019 Faith, she wasn't bred to win ribbons, but she 00:26:41.019 --> 00:26:43.220 was a biological tank. She eventually scored 00:26:43.220 --> 00:26:46.299 EX 94, but more importantly, she produced over 00:26:46.299 --> 00:26:50.460 242 ,000 pounds of milk in her lifetime. And 00:26:50.460 --> 00:26:52.380 the elite breeders quickly realized what he had 00:26:52.380 --> 00:26:55.279 built. Big names in the industry, guys like Charlie 00:26:55.279 --> 00:26:57.799 Backus and Pete Heffering, came to his farm and 00:26:57.799 --> 00:26:59.880 tried desperately to buy her. But Plushansky 00:26:59.880 --> 00:27:02.480 absolutely refused to sell. He wouldn't budge. 00:27:02.500 --> 00:27:04.839 Because for Plushansky, it wasn't about cashing 00:27:04.839 --> 00:27:07.660 in for a quick payday. It was about proving the 00:27:07.660 --> 00:27:10.140 absolute superiority of his contrarian philosophy. 00:27:10.619 --> 00:27:12.839 And he proved it on a global scale. The chief 00:27:12.839 --> 00:27:15.420 faith family began to completely dominate the 00:27:15.420 --> 00:27:18.039 national locator list. Let's explain the locator 00:27:18.039 --> 00:27:19.599 list for the audience really quick. A good idea. 00:27:19.950 --> 00:27:22.250 Before modern genomics, the industry used the 00:27:22.250 --> 00:27:24.470 locator list to identify the highest -producing 00:27:24.470 --> 00:27:27.089 cows in the country based on their genetic potential 00:27:27.089 --> 00:27:29.950 for yield. It was the absolute gold standard 00:27:29.950 --> 00:27:33.670 for production traits. And by 1996, four of the 00:27:33.670 --> 00:27:36.710 top 20 animals on that entire national list were 00:27:36.710 --> 00:27:39.470 direct descendants of Chief Faith. Because of 00:27:39.470 --> 00:27:42.470 this undeniable proof of production, his cattle 00:27:42.470 --> 00:27:45.450 became a massive export commodity, particularly 00:27:45.450 --> 00:27:48.220 to Japan. The Japanese market wasn't interested 00:27:48.220 --> 00:27:51.400 in American showering politics. They wanted exactly 00:27:51.400 --> 00:27:54.640 what Plushansky had built. Relentless, heavy 00:27:54.640 --> 00:27:57.980 -duty, problem -free milk production. But if 00:27:57.980 --> 00:28:00.279 Plushansky built his family on military grit, 00:28:00.460 --> 00:28:03.740 the story of our next cow, Rice Crest to South 00:28:03.740 --> 00:28:07.230 Wind Cay, starts with simple... everyday neighborly 00:28:07.230 --> 00:28:09.930 kindness. It's known in the breed as the rice 00:28:09.930 --> 00:28:12.609 crest phenomenon. Fred Rice's story is the epitome 00:28:12.609 --> 00:28:15.089 of the farming community. He's just doing chores 00:28:15.089 --> 00:28:17.269 for a sick neighbor, Jay Knepper, who is recovering 00:28:17.269 --> 00:28:19.589 from surgery. Fred steps in to milk the cows 00:28:19.589 --> 00:28:21.589 to keep the farm running. And while Fred is standing 00:28:21.589 --> 00:28:24.109 in that parlor day after day observing the cattle, 00:28:24.230 --> 00:28:26.250 he notices something. There's a specific group 00:28:26.250 --> 00:28:28.930 of about five cows that are just, as he puts 00:28:28.930 --> 00:28:30.980 it, milking their heads off. They are aggressively 00:28:30.980 --> 00:28:33.299 outproducing everything else in the barn. Fred 00:28:33.299 --> 00:28:35.380 looks at the pedigrees and realizes they are 00:28:35.380 --> 00:28:37.559 all related. So when Knepper later decides to 00:28:37.559 --> 00:28:40.279 sell his heifers, Fred and his brother buy one 00:28:40.279 --> 00:28:43.559 of the relatives, a cow named Terrace Lane Ideal 00:28:43.559 --> 00:28:46.180 Star. And here is the defining detail of the 00:28:46.180 --> 00:28:49.880 case story. When Terrace Lane Ideal Star is classified 00:28:49.880 --> 00:28:52.980 as a two -year -old, the classifier scores her 00:28:52.980 --> 00:28:56.640 GP76. Now for anyone familiar with the 1 to 100 00:28:56.640 --> 00:29:01.299 scale, A good plus 76 is, well, it's nothing 00:29:01.299 --> 00:29:03.500 to brag about. It's aggressively average. Yeah. 00:29:03.559 --> 00:29:06.200 It means she lacked the aesthetic sweep, the 00:29:06.200 --> 00:29:08.900 perfect utter attachment, the angularity that 00:29:08.900 --> 00:29:11.579 the industry prized. But underneath that average 00:29:11.579 --> 00:29:14.460 exterior, she was quietly building a genetic 00:29:14.460 --> 00:29:18.049 powerhouse. Generations later, that modest maternal 00:29:18.049 --> 00:29:22.069 line produces Rice Crest Southwind K. And K absolutely 00:29:22.069 --> 00:29:24.670 shatters the protein records for the breed. It's 00:29:24.670 --> 00:29:26.730 like scouting a baseball player who has this 00:29:26.730 --> 00:29:29.769 terribly awkward, ugly swing. The mechanics look 00:29:29.769 --> 00:29:31.950 entirely wrong. All the elite scouts with their 00:29:31.950 --> 00:29:33.869 clipboards walk right past him, shaking their 00:29:33.869 --> 00:29:36.329 heads. But somehow he hits a home run every single 00:29:36.329 --> 00:29:38.750 time he steps to the plate. Exactly. The establishment 00:29:38.750 --> 00:29:41.089 ignores him because he lacks flash, but he's 00:29:41.089 --> 00:29:42.730 the one actually putting points on the board. 00:29:43.099 --> 00:29:45.539 That is the exact dynamic that played out. The 00:29:45.539 --> 00:29:47.900 elite sale selectors, the guys picking cows for 00:29:47.900 --> 00:29:50.240 the high -end auctions, walked right past the 00:29:50.240 --> 00:29:52.779 rice -crest cattle. They dismissed them as just 00:29:52.779 --> 00:29:55.519 good milk bulls, implying they lacked true elite 00:29:55.519 --> 00:29:57.819 status. But the biology couldn't be ignored. 00:29:58.180 --> 00:30:01.279 Kay put three dozen of her sons into AI service. 00:30:01.500 --> 00:30:05.079 And in 1999, She achieved something completely 00:30:05.079 --> 00:30:08.420 unprecedented. She put three sons, Lance, Brett, 00:30:08.559 --> 00:30:12.039 and Marshall, on the top 100 TPI list simultaneously. 00:30:12.759 --> 00:30:15.160 Her son Lance was the number one bull in the 00:30:15.160 --> 00:30:17.839 brood. Let's remind folks about the TPI, or Total 00:30:17.839 --> 00:30:20.539 Performance Index. It is the ultimate formula 00:30:20.539 --> 00:30:23.140 the industry uses to rank genetics. It combines 00:30:23.140 --> 00:30:26.069 milk, fat, protein, butter confirmation, and 00:30:26.069 --> 00:30:28.569 health traits into one single number. To have 00:30:28.569 --> 00:30:31.329 three sons from one cow in the top 100 of that 00:30:31.329 --> 00:30:33.690 fiercely competitive list is mind -boggling. 00:30:33.849 --> 00:30:36.230 And the ultimate vindication for this ugly duckling 00:30:36.230 --> 00:30:38.430 family came later with a bull named Sandy Valley 00:30:38.430 --> 00:30:40.930 Bolton. Bolton, a direct descendant of Kay's 00:30:40.930 --> 00:30:43.549 line, ranked number one on the TPI list in 2006 00:30:43.549 --> 00:30:46.170 -2007, essentially defining an entire decade 00:30:46.170 --> 00:30:48.369 of dairy breeding. When you look at the mechanics 00:30:48.369 --> 00:30:51.130 of the Kay story, it effectively settles the 00:30:51.130 --> 00:30:54.000 eternal type versus production debate. It proves 00:30:54.000 --> 00:30:56.519 that you cannot dismiss a cow simply because 00:30:56.519 --> 00:30:59.039 she doesn't fit the aesthetic ideal of the moment. 00:31:00.119 --> 00:31:03.039 The critics who mocked Kay's modest type scores 00:31:03.039 --> 00:31:06.460 had absolutely nothing to say when Bolton's sons 00:31:06.460 --> 00:31:08.650 and daughters took over the global herd. The 00:31:08.650 --> 00:31:11.349 profound lesson there, for anyone listening in 00:31:11.349 --> 00:31:13.710 their barn right now, is to look much harder 00:31:13.710 --> 00:31:16.750 at what you already own. The most valuable cow 00:31:16.750 --> 00:31:19.269 in your herd might be the unassuming, aggressively 00:31:19.269 --> 00:31:21.829 average -looking one in the back corner, who 00:31:21.829 --> 00:31:24.569 just quietly eats her feed, breeds back on the 00:31:24.569 --> 00:31:26.890 first try, and pays the bills every single month. 00:31:27.109 --> 00:31:29.650 But recognizing that value requires trusting 00:31:29.650 --> 00:31:32.289 your own eyes over the industry consensus. Which 00:31:32.289 --> 00:31:35.710 transitions us perfectly into our final two matriarchs, 00:31:35.710 --> 00:31:38.329 Pala and Hiawatha. Because the dairy industry 00:31:38.329 --> 00:31:40.869 has a deeply ingrained, very dangerous habit 00:31:40.869 --> 00:31:43.170 of ignoring greatness if it doesn't fit the mathematical 00:31:43.170 --> 00:31:46.009 formula of the day. The index wars. The industry 00:31:46.009 --> 00:31:47.930 gets so entirely obsessed with the spreadsheet, 00:31:48.009 --> 00:31:50.109 so focused on the algorithm, that they completely 00:31:50.109 --> 00:31:52.630 lose sight of the living, breathing animal standing 00:31:52.630 --> 00:31:55.210 in the straw. Our next two families show exactly 00:31:55.210 --> 00:31:57.269 what happens when breeders stubbornly back their 00:31:57.269 --> 00:31:59.890 own vision against the institutional gatekeepers. 00:32:00.670 --> 00:32:03.029 Let's talk about Windy Knoll View Ultimate Pala. 00:32:03.420 --> 00:32:05.539 Jim and Nina Burdett started their operation 00:32:05.539 --> 00:32:09.440 in 1974 on a rented farm. Capital was tight, 00:32:09.579 --> 00:32:12.400 so their strategy was entirely unique. They actively 00:32:12.400 --> 00:32:14.759 sought out and bought the cows that other men 00:32:14.759 --> 00:32:17.259 didn't want. They bought animals with minor defects. 00:32:17.640 --> 00:32:20.259 Maybe they were slow milkers or had a slightly 00:32:20.259 --> 00:32:22.859 off -kilter udder. But the Burdetts had a strict 00:32:22.859 --> 00:32:26.289 rule. The cow had to have massive compensating 00:32:26.289 --> 00:32:29.710 features, specifically broad rumps, strong frames, 00:32:29.809 --> 00:32:32.069 and immense chest width. They were playing the 00:32:32.069 --> 00:32:34.049 long game, they were securing the structural 00:32:34.049 --> 00:32:36.369 frame, knowing they could use strategic mating 00:32:36.369 --> 00:32:39.009 to fix the specific defects in the next generation. 00:32:39.410 --> 00:32:41.490 Their primary tool for fixing those bad udders 00:32:41.490 --> 00:32:44.670 was the legendary bull round oak rag apple elevation. 00:32:45.519 --> 00:32:47.619 But the real magic happened when Jim Burdett 00:32:47.619 --> 00:32:50.359 attended World Dairy Expo and saw the daughters 00:32:50.359 --> 00:32:53.299 of a bull named Quality Ultimate completely sweep 00:32:53.299 --> 00:32:55.900 a show. He rushes back to the farm, uses Quality 00:32:55.900 --> 00:32:58.519 Ultimate on a strong -framed cow named Pauline, 00:32:58.539 --> 00:33:01.410 and the result is Pella. Paula was a biological 00:33:01.410 --> 00:33:05.269 powerhouse. By the 1991 Pennsylvania Spring Show, 00:33:05.470 --> 00:33:08.529 she did something virtually unheard of in show 00:33:08.529 --> 00:33:10.849 ring history. She furnished four class -winning 00:33:10.849 --> 00:33:13.549 daughters, sired by four different bulls. They 00:33:13.549 --> 00:33:15.509 won the produce of damn class, the damn daughter 00:33:15.509 --> 00:33:17.670 class, and the best three females. She eventually 00:33:17.670 --> 00:33:20.829 produced 18 excellent offspring. But here is 00:33:20.829 --> 00:33:22.769 where the conflict with the establishment begins. 00:33:23.130 --> 00:33:26.150 The AI industry. the corporate sire analysts 00:33:26.150 --> 00:33:28.930 whose job is to buy young bulls to sell semen 00:33:28.930 --> 00:33:31.930 to the masses. They look at Paula's sons, and 00:33:31.930 --> 00:33:35.210 they uniformly reject them. Why? Because the 00:33:35.210 --> 00:33:38.410 industry was on an absolute index binge, and 00:33:38.410 --> 00:33:41.069 the algorithm hated the quality ultimate genetics 00:33:41.069 --> 00:33:43.549 in her pedigree. The analysts looked at the spreadsheet, 00:33:43.829 --> 00:33:46.349 saw a predicted transmitting ability they didn't 00:33:46.349 --> 00:33:49.700 like, and completely ignored the living, breathing, 00:33:49.880 --> 00:33:52.119 utterly dominant family standing right in front 00:33:52.119 --> 00:33:53.920 of them. It perfectly illustrates the danger 00:33:53.920 --> 00:33:56.160 of managing biology entirely by spreadsheet. 00:33:56.380 --> 00:33:58.660 The sire analysts were myopically focused only 00:33:58.660 --> 00:34:01.160 on the sire stack, the bulls on the top half 00:34:01.160 --> 00:34:03.279 of the pedigree. What they completely missed 00:34:03.279 --> 00:34:06.019 was the immense power of Pala's maternal line. 00:34:06.380 --> 00:34:10.139 Her maternal line was 21 generations deep, tracing 00:34:10.139 --> 00:34:12.900 continuously all the way back to a cow imported 00:34:12.900 --> 00:34:16.719 from Holland in 1884. A 21 -generation deep foundation. 00:34:17.139 --> 00:34:20.139 So how do the Burdettes bypass these corporate 00:34:20.139 --> 00:34:23.079 gatekeepers? They team up with a rogue thinker 00:34:23.079 --> 00:34:25.659 named Dick Witter at Taurus Service. Together, 00:34:25.800 --> 00:34:28.079 they create a grassroots marketing pitch called 00:34:28.079 --> 00:34:32.280 My Three Grandsons. They take three bulls, popular, 00:34:32.519 --> 00:34:35.460 promote, and powerhouse, all grandsons of Pala. 00:34:35.820 --> 00:34:37.840 and market them directly to everyday farmers 00:34:37.840 --> 00:34:40.059 based entirely on the undeniable power of that 00:34:40.059 --> 00:34:42.219 maternal line. They totally sidestepped the rigid 00:34:42.219 --> 00:34:44.380 sire analysts. And the campaign was a massive 00:34:44.380 --> 00:34:46.780 success, because everyday dairymen intuitively 00:34:46.780 --> 00:34:49.380 understood that a 21 -generation deep maternal 00:34:49.380 --> 00:34:52.059 line was a significantly safer bet than whatever 00:34:52.059 --> 00:34:54.420 volatile genomic index was popular that particular 00:34:54.420 --> 00:34:56.519 month. It proved that sometimes the long view 00:34:56.519 --> 00:34:58.539 is the only reliable view. Which brings us to 00:34:58.539 --> 00:35:00.840 our final matriarch, and perhaps the most radical 00:35:00.840 --> 00:35:03.730 long view of all, the Iowatha family. We are 00:35:03.730 --> 00:35:06.190 swinging back into the realm of high finance 00:35:06.190 --> 00:35:09.110 and huge money, but the origin story starts in 00:35:09.110 --> 00:35:11.789 the most humble, analytical way possible. It 00:35:11.789 --> 00:35:14.389 starts at a kitchen table in New York. A visionary 00:35:14.389 --> 00:35:16.969 breeder named Sherman Harrington sits down with 00:35:16.969 --> 00:35:19.510 Bill Weeks, the man who developed the AAA mating 00:35:19.510 --> 00:35:22.210 system. We need to explain the AAA system because 00:35:22.210 --> 00:35:24.590 it's totally different from index breeding. Animal 00:35:24.590 --> 00:35:27.050 Analysis Associates isn't about chasing the highest 00:35:27.050 --> 00:35:30.250 numbers for milk or type. It's about structural 00:35:30.250 --> 00:35:33.429 compatibility. It analyzes the physical qualities 00:35:33.429 --> 00:35:35.989 of a cow, whether she is too sharp, too round, 00:35:36.170 --> 00:35:39.110 too frail, or too coarse, and matches her with 00:35:39.110 --> 00:35:41.989 a bull whose physical form counteracts her specific 00:35:41.989 --> 00:35:44.989 weaknesses. It is literally structural engineering 00:35:44.989 --> 00:35:47.690 applied to biology. Exactly. And Harrington, 00:35:47.769 --> 00:35:50.309 utilizing this system, lays out a philosophy 00:35:50.309 --> 00:35:53.210 that probably sounded utterly crazy to the fast 00:35:53.210 --> 00:35:55.869 -paced industry at the time. His focus was entirely 00:35:55.869 --> 00:35:58.579 on extreme longevity. He believed a cow wasn't 00:35:58.579 --> 00:36:00.420 at her best as a two -year -old or even as a 00:36:00.420 --> 00:36:02.639 four -year -old. He believed a cow reached her 00:36:02.639 --> 00:36:05.400 absolute biological peak at 10 years of age. 00:36:05.579 --> 00:36:08.440 10 years old. In an industry that is constantly 00:36:08.440 --> 00:36:10.860 trying to turn generations faster and faster, 00:36:11.000 --> 00:36:13.840 pushing heifers to calve earlier and produce 00:36:13.840 --> 00:36:16.599 more immediately, Harrington is saying, no, let's 00:36:16.599 --> 00:36:18.800 build an animal that peaks a full decade after 00:36:18.800 --> 00:36:21.130 she's born. And that radical patience creates 00:36:21.130 --> 00:36:24.570 Shermar Highmark Hiawatha. She produces almost 00:36:24.570 --> 00:36:27.349 35 ,000 pounds of milk as a six -year -old, a 00:36:27.349 --> 00:36:29.469 massive record. The family gets featured on the 00:36:29.469 --> 00:36:31.750 cover of the Holstein World magazine, and suddenly 00:36:31.750 --> 00:36:34.429 the big money comes calling. The syndicates take 00:36:34.429 --> 00:36:38.010 notice. Bream Street Holsteins buys in. Then 00:36:38.010 --> 00:36:40.670 Hiawatha herself is sold to Mansion Valley for 00:36:40.670 --> 00:36:44.440 $280 ,000. Her daughter, Niagara, goes to the 00:36:44.440 --> 00:36:46.719 designer fashion sale and sells for the exact 00:36:46.719 --> 00:36:50.400 same staggering price, $280 ,000. And the market 00:36:50.400 --> 00:36:52.559 fever just keeps climbing. Hiawatha's granddaughter, 00:36:52.820 --> 00:36:55.219 a cow named Pocahontas, sells as a two -year 00:36:55.219 --> 00:36:58.340 -old for an unbelievable $530 ,000 to a banker 00:36:58.340 --> 00:37:00.300 from Connecticut. Half a million dollars for 00:37:00.300 --> 00:37:02.960 one single cow. Now, I have to stop and challenge 00:37:02.960 --> 00:37:05.059 this dynamic. We talked about the 1980s investor 00:37:05.059 --> 00:37:08.099 craze earlier and the total bankruptcy and chaos 00:37:08.099 --> 00:37:10.760 it caused for Jack Stuckey. When you see a cow 00:37:10.760 --> 00:37:13.980 selling for $530 ,000 to a Wall Street banker, 00:37:14.219 --> 00:37:16.860 does that kind of money inevitably ruin the breed? 00:37:17.340 --> 00:37:19.579 Or does it actually serve a vital purpose by 00:37:19.579 --> 00:37:22.320 elevating the absolute best genetics so they 00:37:22.320 --> 00:37:24.539 can reach places they normally wouldn't, like 00:37:24.539 --> 00:37:27.119 massive herds in Japan and California? That is 00:37:27.119 --> 00:37:29.159 a crucial question about the role of outside 00:37:29.159 --> 00:37:31.900 capital in agriculture. The capital itself is 00:37:31.900 --> 00:37:34.650 agnostic. It simply amplifies whatever system 00:37:34.650 --> 00:37:37.650 it touches. In Stuckey's case, the money created 00:37:37.650 --> 00:37:40.769 a speculative bubble that burst. But in the Hiawatha 00:37:40.769 --> 00:37:43.349 case, we see a golden synergy between biology 00:37:43.349 --> 00:37:46.389 and capital. The money acted as a hyper -accelerant. 00:37:46.489 --> 00:37:49.250 Walk us through how that synergy actually functioned. 00:37:49.269 --> 00:37:52.110 It worked in three distinct phases. First, Sherwin 00:37:52.110 --> 00:37:54.289 -Harrington's quiet kitchen table AYA philosophy 00:37:54.289 --> 00:37:57.610 created the actual biological product, the immense 00:37:57.610 --> 00:38:00.530 longevity, the deep frame, the capacity to milk 00:38:00.530 --> 00:38:03.639 for a decade. Second, the massive investor checks 00:38:03.639 --> 00:38:05.860 from Wall Street bankers provided the capital 00:38:05.860 --> 00:38:08.739 required to aggressively flush those cows via 00:38:08.739 --> 00:38:11.519 embryo transfer and rapidly transport those elite 00:38:11.519 --> 00:38:14.239 genetics across the globe. And then the final, 00:38:14.320 --> 00:38:18.059 most important piece of the puzzle. Every day, 00:38:18.260 --> 00:38:21.420 Midwestern dairymen bought into those lines and 00:38:21.420 --> 00:38:24.300 pushed the biology to its absolute physical limits. 00:38:24.480 --> 00:38:27.110 Right. A dairyman named Don Mayer in Wisconsin 00:38:27.110 --> 00:38:29.769 takes a Hiawatha descendant, Golden Oak's Mark 00:38:29.769 --> 00:38:33.130 Prudence, into his herd. And under his meticulous 00:38:33.130 --> 00:38:36.280 daily management, she sets a world record. 62 00:38:36.280 --> 00:38:41.679 ,981 pounds of milk in 365 days on three times 00:38:41.679 --> 00:38:44.519 a day milking. Nearly 63 ,000 pounds of milk 00:38:44.519 --> 00:38:47.260 in one year. It is the perfect agricultural ecosystem. 00:38:47.639 --> 00:38:50.440 The visionary breeder engineers the cow, the 00:38:50.440 --> 00:38:52.599 investor capital scales and moves the genetics, 00:38:52.780 --> 00:38:55.139 and the master gerryman realizes the ultimate 00:38:55.139 --> 00:38:57.380 potential of the animal. When Don Mayer was later 00:38:57.380 --> 00:38:59.440 asked to compare the Hiawathas to all the other 00:38:59.440 --> 00:39:02.000 great cow families he had worked with, he said 00:39:02.000 --> 00:39:05.000 they were unequivocally his favorite. Why? Because 00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:07.420 just like the Roxies, they consistently produced 00:39:07.420 --> 00:39:10.300 massive frames and delivered massive milk. They 00:39:10.300 --> 00:39:12.599 fulfilled the biological promise. Okay, let's 00:39:12.599 --> 00:39:14.760 take a collective breath here. We've just sprinted 00:39:14.760 --> 00:39:16.880 through decades of agricultural history. We've 00:39:16.880 --> 00:39:18.920 looked at seven dramatically different cows. 00:39:19.539 --> 00:39:22.619 We've seen Roxy's perfect photo shoot, Delia's 00:39:22.619 --> 00:39:25.800 35 -year slow burn, Black Rose's accidental birth 00:39:25.800 --> 00:39:28.920 from a dry nitrogen tank. We've seen Chief Faith's 00:39:28.920 --> 00:39:31.969 military grit. Kay's hidden protein explosion, 00:39:32.309 --> 00:39:35.730 Pala's 21 -generation deep defiance of the algorithm, 00:39:35.929 --> 00:39:38.710 and Hiawatha's half -million -dollar proof of 00:39:38.710 --> 00:39:41.360 longevity. So what does this all mean for you, 00:39:41.400 --> 00:39:43.099 the listener, whether you are managing a herd 00:39:43.099 --> 00:39:45.940 of 500 cows or just trying to navigate your own 00:39:45.940 --> 00:39:48.739 long -term business decisions? When you synthesize 00:39:48.739 --> 00:39:50.900 the data across all these varying environments, 00:39:51.159 --> 00:39:53.920 what ties these seven matriarchs together isn't 00:39:53.920 --> 00:39:56.440 just that they had excellent classification scores 00:39:56.440 --> 00:39:59.380 or gold medal sons. It's the profound conviction 00:39:59.380 --> 00:40:02.050 of the human standing behind them. It's a few 00:40:02.050 --> 00:40:04.269 rogue breeders who firmly believed and proved 00:40:04.269 --> 00:40:06.829 that the depth of the maternal line matters infinitely 00:40:06.829 --> 00:40:09.809 more than whatever the popular Sire Index dictates 00:40:09.809 --> 00:40:12.349 on any given day. It's the absolute refusal to 00:40:12.349 --> 00:40:14.750 be a slave to the spreadsheet. Genomic indexes 00:40:14.750 --> 00:40:16.710 change constantly. The mathematical formulas 00:40:16.710 --> 00:40:19.309 are tweaked. The baselines shift. The economic 00:40:19.309 --> 00:40:21.809 weights given to protein versus fat are altered. 00:40:22.050 --> 00:40:24.349 The hot, heavily marketed bull that everyone 00:40:24.349 --> 00:40:27.510 is chasing in 2024 will likely be completely 00:40:27.510 --> 00:40:31.500 obsolete and forgotten by 2027. but cow families. 00:40:32.139 --> 00:40:35.320 Deep, proven cow families are genetic insurance. 00:40:35.699 --> 00:40:38.019 Genetic insurance. That is exactly what it is. 00:40:38.219 --> 00:40:41.579 A truly great brood cow acts as an anchor. She 00:40:41.579 --> 00:40:43.940 will throw excellent, highly productive daughters 00:40:43.940 --> 00:40:46.460 no matter who she is mated to, whether you breed 00:40:46.460 --> 00:40:48.780 her to a massive strength bull, a refined dairy 00:40:48.780 --> 00:40:51.579 bull, a chart -topping index leader, or an ugly 00:40:51.579 --> 00:40:54.320 production sire. The maternal line ensures the 00:40:54.320 --> 00:40:56.860 structural and productive integrity of the offspring. 00:40:57.099 --> 00:40:59.760 The matriarch protects the herd. So if you're 00:40:59.880 --> 00:41:01.239 listening to this right now, look at your own 00:41:01.239 --> 00:41:03.159 foundation. Look at your own barn or your own 00:41:03.159 --> 00:41:05.559 business. Are you constantly chasing the latest 00:41:05.559 --> 00:41:07.900 flash in the pan metric? Are you buying into 00:41:07.900 --> 00:41:10.260 the hype of the algorithm? Or are you, like Bob 00:41:10.260 --> 00:41:12.840 Snow, quietly taking the time to build a rock 00:41:12.840 --> 00:41:14.940 solid foundation that will still be producing 00:41:14.940 --> 00:41:18.079 undeniable trouble -free results 40 years from 00:41:18.079 --> 00:41:20.320 now? It requires immense discipline to ignore 00:41:20.320 --> 00:41:22.440 the noise of the marketplace and trust the evidence 00:41:22.440 --> 00:41:25.300 of your own eyes. It really does. Thank you all 00:41:25.300 --> 00:41:27.659 for joining us on this extensive deep dive into 00:41:27.659 --> 00:41:29.780 the hidden matriarchs of the dairy industry. 00:41:30.039 --> 00:41:31.880 It's been an incredible journey through history, 00:41:32.079 --> 00:41:36.519 biology, economics, and sheer undeniable human 00:41:36.519 --> 00:41:39.239 stubbornness. But before we sign off, I want 00:41:39.239 --> 00:41:41.059 to leave you with a final thought to mull over 00:41:41.059 --> 00:41:44.639 as you go about your day. Today, modern genomics 00:41:44.639 --> 00:41:47.440 can map a living creature's exact biological 00:41:47.440 --> 00:41:50.599 potential from a hair follicle before it is even 00:41:50.599 --> 00:41:54.059 born. We can predict milk yield, utter depth 00:41:54.059 --> 00:41:56.440 and productive life with incredible mathematical 00:41:56.440 --> 00:41:59.219 precision. But as we rely more and more on these 00:41:59.219 --> 00:42:01.579 incredibly sophisticated algorithms to tell us 00:42:01.579 --> 00:42:03.719 what is valuable, we have to ask a hard question. 00:42:03.940 --> 00:42:06.719 Can a spreadsheet ever measure the sheer biological 00:42:06.719 --> 00:42:09.260 will of a cow recovering from having three gallons 00:42:09.260 --> 00:42:12.420 of sand removed from her stomach? Can index ever 00:42:12.420 --> 00:42:14.599 account for the incredible history -altering 00:42:14.599 --> 00:42:17.900 luck of a dry semen tank? As science advances 00:42:17.900 --> 00:42:20.340 and our engineering of biology gets sharper, 00:42:20.539 --> 00:42:22.980 what invisible traits of the maternal line, the 00:42:22.980 --> 00:42:25.599 grit, the fight, the unquantifiable will to survive 00:42:25.599 --> 00:42:27.920 and produce, are we still failing to measure 00:42:27.920 --> 00:42:30.639 today? You started this deep dive thinking about 00:42:30.639 --> 00:42:33.500 clean spreadsheets and precise engineering, but 00:42:33.500 --> 00:42:35.840 we leave you in the beautiful, messy, unpredictable 00:42:35.840 --> 00:42:38.800 waters of biology. Something to chew on until 00:42:38.800 --> 00:42:41.679 next time. Keep exploring, trust your own eyes, 00:42:41.760 --> 00:42:46.690 and thanks for taking this deep dive. Turn the 00:42:46.690 --> 00:42:55.210 volume high For the icons of the ages That never 00:42:55.210 --> 00:43:00.489 will die From the show ring thunder to The quiet 00:43:00.489 --> 00:43:07.130 strength they knew Hear their stories now Coming 00:43:07.130 --> 00:43:16.849 right on through Legends live here.